Born in 1987, Thandiwe McCarthy was raised in a big Black family in the small white town of Woodstock, New Brunswick. Always either lost in thought or found screaming and pulling pranks, Thandiwe's family of five aunts, four uncles, and many cousins did their best to nurture and instill the values of community and self-respect.

It wasn't until he moved away to the city of Fredericton, where no one knew how to put up with his antics, that Thandiwe was forced to face the world without the safety net of family.

Now far away from his family support, he will have to walk the line between accepting the aggressive objectives of public education and defending the family values he was raised with. Or risk falling into Social oblivion. (From Amazon)

Thandiwe McCarthy is a writer, spoken word poet and seventh generation Black Canadian. As a writer, McCarthy has published essays with the Nova Scotia Advocate exploring his Black identity. In 2020, Thandiwe performed his poetry at Atlantic Canada's largest literary event, Frye Festival and UNB's 2020 Art Centre exhibit, Rediscovering the Roots of Black New Brunswickers. As a community advocate, he has co-founded the New Brunswick Black Artists Alliance and helped republish the history book titled The Blacks of New Brunswick.

Part prose and part poetry, Social Oblivion: Raised Black in Canada is an exploration on identity culture and education in rural and urban New Brunswick. The book takes the reader through the first 20 years of McCarthy's life.